10 BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



Limax cuter (1674), Lister, Phil. Trans, vol. ix. p. 96. Hist. Anim. Angl. 

 p. 131. pi. ii. f. 17. 



Limax ater and rufus, Linnaeus (1746), Faun. Sueo. p. 507. 



Limax alius, Linnaeus (1767), Sj/st. Nat. 12th edit. p. 1081. 



Limax succineus, Muller (1774), Hist. Verm. vol. ii. p. 7. 



Limax luteus, Razoumowsky (1789), Hist. Nat. Jorat. vol. i. p. 269. 



Limax subfuscus, Draparnaud (1805), Hist. Moll. p. 123. pi. ix. f. 8. 



Arion empiricorum, albus, fuscatus, subfuscus, and melanocephalus, Ferus- 



sac, Hist. Moll. vol. i. p. 60 to 65 ; vol. ii. p. 17, 18. pi. i. to iii. 

 Arion ater, Turton (1831), Man. p. 104. 

 Limax virescens, Millet (1854), Moll. Maine et Loire, p. 11. 

 Arion {Loched) rufus, albus, and subfuscus, Moquin-Tandon (1855), Hist. 



Moll. vol. ii. p. 10, 13. pi. i. f. 1 to 27. 

 Hab. — Throughout Europe, (in woods and gardens, in shady places, under 



hedges and leaves, and about wells or j)urnps) . 



This majestic richly-diapered slug may be recognized by its large 

 swollen dimensions and characteristic oblong tuberosities. In colour 

 it is mostly of a shining dark chocolate-red or oHve-black, but 

 it is extremely variable, and, as may be seen by the list of synonyms, 

 has received at the hands of different authors the names of black, 

 red, brown, white, and amber. De Ferussac, thinking to avoid con- 

 fusion, introduced the name em/piricorum (of the quack doctors) in 

 allusion to its alleged medicinal properties, and it has been adopted 

 by Forbes and Hanley. The Linnsean names ater or rufus, the first 

 of which is most in use in Britain, the second mostly on the Conti- 

 nent, either express the prevailing colour of the species, but Lister's 

 name ater had a well-established priority in this country long before 

 the time of Lfnnseus or Muller; and it has been ruled that the names 

 of natural objects should not be altered according to the fancy or 

 judgment of any author as to their appropriateness. 



Whatever the colour of the body may be, the tentacles of A. ater 

 are always of a livid blue-black, the eyes at the bulbous extremity of 

 the larger pair of tentacles being minute and often difficult to dis- 

 tinguish ; it is even doubted by some authors whether these specks 

 are organs of vision at all. As in the rest of the family the head and 

 tentacles are wonderfully retractile, being completely drawn within 

 the skin when the animal is at rest, with the body foreshortened 

 into a lump, protected almost vertically in front by the shield. The 

 shield is finely granulated, and encloses beneath the posterior por- 

 tion a few calcareous grains, which are sometimes isolated, some- 

 times rudely agglomerated. The edge of the foot, when expanded, 



